Water rights: access to water means access to education in the slums of Bangalore, India
Updated - Monday 19 November 2007
Two Bangalore slum communities have asserted their rights to water so that their children can attend school and secure a better future. Key to this achievement was the legalisation of the slum dwellers and the involvement of women.
The lack of land titles often prevents informal settlements from being connected to municipal water and sanitation systems. In Bangalore, NGOs and the local municipal water utility, BWSSB, have solved this dilemma. Public authorities now accept ration cards or voters’ IDs as proof of residence. Furthermore, local NGO, the Association for Volunteer Action and Services (AVAS), was able to buy land and work out a collective land title for one of the slums, MRS Palya. AVAS is now helping another slum, Sundamnagar, achieve the same.
The approach of AVAS is to set up water and sanitation committees in which women take the lead. Now that MRS Palya residents have a water connection, it means that children can go to school. They no longer have to help their mothers fetch water in the middle of the night as before.
Related web sites: Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) - Services to urban poor ; WSUP - Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor - Projects - Bangalore, India
Source: Asia Water Wire / ADB, Oct 2007
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